New Art: "Kemeti Archives" (From upcoming e-book "Shadow of the Goddess")

Kemeti Archives

from my upcoming e-book "Shadow of the Goddess"

oil

© 2012 by A. Dameron 

 

The Kemeti are loosely based on the ancient Egyptian and Mayan civilizations, as evidenced by their architecture. They are mentioned in the short story "Wood" in "Five Elemental Dragons: Cycle One" as neighbors of the Shinwai. The Kemeti feature heavily in the sequel to the "Five Elemental Dragons" Cycles, "Shadow of the Goddess" (Summer 2012).

New Art: "Shinwai Temple" (final), art from e-book series "Five Elemental Dragons, Cycles One and Two"

Shinwai Temple (final)

art from my e-book series "Five Elemental Dragons, Cycle One and Two"

oil

© 2012 by A. Dameron 

 

A Chinese-style temple in the mountains, one of the settings in my e-book series (link above).

Cycle One is now available for download, Cycle Two will be available April 2012.

Fantasy Architecture and Then Some...

I bought this book today: How To Draw and Paint Fantasy Architecture by Rob Alexander. I'm a fan of his books, having Drawing and Painting Landscapes and Cityscapes (with Martin McKenna) and Otherworlds: How to Imagine, Paint and Create Epic Scenes of Fantasy. His artwork is breathtaking both in the colors and the depth. In each book, Alexander covers art techniques like the pros/cons of various media (oil, acrylic, pastel, digital), perspective, color theory, and composition. 

The Fantasy Architecture book also includes a chapter on "Introduction to Architecture". It includes the trademark features of buildings from various cultures:

• Middle Eastern buildings use domed roofs, tall minarets (towers) and precise, mathematical decorations that repeat over and over. An example of that is the Hagia Sophia mosque.  
• Romanesque buildings usually have rounded arches, thick wall and small windows. The doorways are usually squat and heavy, since the shape and the height of the buildings are fixed ratios. Churches in Rome use arcading, which are rows of columns with archways in between them. These formed walkways (such as in monasteries) or architects set them flush against a wall (those are called blind arcades).
• Gothic cathedrals have the high arches, flying buttresses, ribbed vaults and wall mouldings (think Notre Dame in Paris). Those high arches, buttresses and vaults helped expand the interior space and allowed plenty of light through stained-glass windows. These buildings stretched gracefully towards the sky, the complete opposite of the Romanesque design.
• Mesoamerican temples (Aztec, Mayan or Incan) are low and wide, instead of tall and high. They have highly decorated walls and lintels; the carvings tell important stories about the people's history.  Each major temple, stelae (stone markers) and the ball court were geometrically placed to reflect Heaven and the Underworld.   
• Viking architecture used stave posts and wooden wall beams with low, sloping roofs. 
• Asian buildings also have distinctive sloping roofs, and were mostly constructed out of wood instead of stone. Many doors were circular instead of square (those are called moon portals). Round-arched bridges symbolized the path between Heaven and Earth. Both Asian and Viking styles emphasized an integration with nature, instead of replacing or destroying it.

The book has plenty of examples of each type of architecture, which can inspire artists (and writers) to imagine their own based on them.

One helpful chapter of the book talks about the details and textures of various building materials. How can an artist portray a well-worn wooden chest?  A carved wooden lintel? A rugged stone wall? A brick arch that's falling apart and overgrown with weeds? A thatched roof? A plaster ceiling? A marble column? What about a Roman mosaic or tiled floor? What if the building's been gutted by fire and it's been damaged by smoke and soot? Alexander describes how an artist can convey their imaginary world through realistic art techniques.

A word of caution: this book is excellent for reference, but I wouldn't recommend this for complete beginners. It assumes at least a working knowledge of basic concepts like the values of lights, shadow and tone. If you're interested in how to convey your fantasy world in a realistic style, pick up this book. 

 

Why are all the Elves skinny? (aka Laws of the Universe).

I recently overheard a bewildering comment from a pair of authors. The first one asked:

"Have you done any research for your story?"

Author #2: "I write fantasy! I don't need to do any research! It's all made up in my head! It's not like I'm doing historical fiction or something like that!"

Honestly, I'd thought the same thing thirty years ago, when I wrote my first princess-and-the-dragon story. My English teacher read it, then commented, "Your story is wonderful, but the Dragon can't fly. Not the way you've described him."

"What? Why?" I asked. (Keep in mind, I was eight years old at the time).

"His head's way too large for his body, and your story has a planet with extra gravity. He'd be lucky if he doesn't get his nose buried in the ground when he takes off."

"But it's all made up!"

"It's your world, but even fantasy worlds have to follow certain Laws of the Universe (note the Capital Letters)." She directed me to Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, with so many different faces populating Middle Earth. I spent some time reading The Fellowship of the Ring, and marveled at beautiful Galadriel, brave Arwen, and wise Elrond, awesome archer Legolas and funny Gimli the dwarf. After I finished Fellowship, my teacher asked me how I liked it. I told her I loved it, then I asked a question that I bet no other English teacher has ever heard:

"Why are all the Elves skinny? And all the dwarves short? You never see a chubby elf."

Her mouth dropped open as she tried to figure out what to say. Then she said, "Just because you haven't read about a chubby elf doesn't mean they don't exist."

I promptly wrote a story about Timra The Chubby Elf and her compatriot, Huisai the Extraordinarily Tall Dwarf. Time has made that particular manuscript (scribbled in pencil on regular notebook paper) disappear. If I still had it, I probably would post it. I was writing something different, something against type. In Biology class, I learned about different heart rates and weight ratios and bone structure. My English teacher was right: my dragon wouldn't be able to fly the way I imagined him. And considering an Elf's internal make-up (lightweight bones, heightened reflexes and stamina), there's a reason why you see renditions of them as tall, elegant, and ethereal. 

A person from a high-gravity planet would most likely be physically short and stocky, if you take into account the effects on gravity on your bones. Someone from an eternally-dark world should be able to detect objects via sound waves, like sonar, but be almost completely blind in the sun. Gravitationally-challenged Dragons, Chubby Elves and Extraordinarily Tall Dwarves aside, the possibilities for your fantasy world can be endless. Mages, Demons, Spirits, Fairies, Ethereal-Stuff-Between-Dimensions, and your dashing hero/plucky heroine...but be careful not to cross into the realm of Impossible. Nothing else pulls the reader out of a story like that.